Billion Dollar Whale: The Man Who Fooled Wall Street, Hollywood, and the World

by Tom Wright

world’s wealthiest 0.1 percent, the richest of the rich, or people who aspired to enter its ranks: young Americans, Europeans, and Asians who studied for MBAs together, took jobs in finance, and partied in New York, Las Vegas, London, Cannes, and Hong Kong. The backdrop was the global financial crisis, which had sent the U.S. economy

The story begins on the palm-fringed island of Penang.

After Harrow, Low opted to attend college in the United States. He had business ambitions, and America was his choice over stuffy Oxford and Cambridge. There, on the campus of an Ivy League school, he would enter the next stage of his metamorphosis.

One recent estimate puts the money stashed in offshore financial centers since 1970 at $32 trillion—a figure equal to the combined economies of the United States and China—with hundreds of billions lost in tax revenues.

As a further level of security, the pair had arranged for the money to flow via Switzerland-based Falcon Private Bank, which Aabar had bought from American insurance conglomerate AIG. Al Qubaisi had snapped it up when AIG was in trouble during the financial crisis and renamed it Falcon Bank, after the Gulf’s famous hunting bird.

Goldman earned a little less than the first deal, making $114 million—still an enormous windfall.

In October, Toby Watson, head of Goldman’s PFI desk in Asia, made partner. It was a good year also for Blankfein, Goldman’s CEO, who was paid $21 million, still well off his precrisis record of $68 million, in 2007, but a major payday nonetheless. Blankfein had developed other lines of business for Goldman, delivering a $7.5 billion profit that year. But the developments in Malaysia signified a big strategic win for the chief executive.

deal. In total $1.4 billion was diverted. Here was the capital needed to make The Wolf of Wall Street, to pay off Malaysian voters, and to finance ever-more-exuberant parties and gambling.

Al Qubaisi was rewarded handsomely for his role. Soon after 1MDB raised its second bond and funds flowed to the look-alike Aabar, a stream of money—eventually totaling more than $400 million—moved to an account controlled by Al Qubaisi’s company, Vasco Investment Services, at Edmond de Rothschild bank in Luxembourg.

Aboard the Serene, French Riviera, July 2012

Since 2008, Rosmah had spent at least $6 million using credit cards—her husband’s, but also others in her own name—in a nonstop round of shopping stretching from Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, to Harrods in Knightsbridge, to Saks on Fifth Avenue. In private, she thought nothing of using government jets for her shopping trips. But after the Bersih antigraft protests in 2012 had targeted Rosmah’s spending, she went on a public relations campaign to improve her image. Her wealth, she said, was due to a lifelong habit of saving. “I have bought some jewelry and

He wanted her to say Clare Rewcastle-Brown was working against PetroSaudi. “But are there guarantees he will get out earlier?” Laura Justo replied. “You can help or not help,” Mahony snapped, his voice visibly tense. “I feel for you. But I’m also in the shit. We’re all in deep shit. There’s a prime minister of a country who is in the shit. “Who put us in this shit? Don’t forget that. I can’t give you any guarantees.” “For you it’s a matter of money. But for us, it’s a question of our lives, our family, everything,” Laura replied. “It’s not just a matter of money, Laura. It’s a matter of my future, my life,” Mahony broke in. “I won’t ever be able to do deals anywhere because of all this, okay!” “But that’s just work, money, I’m sure you have enough of that, so what’s the problem? You’re talking of the life of someone who’s locked up in a hole.” “But, Laura, all my assets have been confiscated. I have nothing at the moment. What do you think, that I’m living the sweet life? That I’m not paying for this? I’m borrowing money left and right to pay my bills, to pay for my kids’ school, okay. That’s what my life’s like at the moment.”

“But are there guarantees he will get out earlier?” Laura Justo replied. “You can help or not help,” Mahony snapped, his voice visibly tense. “I feel for you. But I’m also in the shit. We’re all in deep shit. There’s a prime minister of a country who is in the shit. “Who put us in this shit? Don’t forget that. I can’t give you any guarantees.” “For you it’s a matter of money. But for us, it’s a question of our lives, our family, everything,” Laura replied. “It’s not just a matter of money, Laura. It’s a matter of my future, my life,” Mahony broke in. “I won’t ever be able to do deals anywhere because of all this, okay!” “But that’s just work, money, I’m sure you have enough of that, so what’s the problem? You’re talking of the life of someone who’s locked up in a hole.” “But, Laura, all my assets have been confiscated. I have nothing at the moment. What do you think, that I’m living the sweet life? That I’m not paying for this? I’m borrowing money left and right to pay my bills, to pay for my kids’ school, okay. That’s what my life’s like at the moment.” The next month, with Justo still in jail, Mahony told Laura that tensions were mounting because of the probes into 1MDB in Switzerland and the United States. Investigators were wading through piles of material—bank transfer documents, property records, shell company registrations, and mountains of emails—to piece together what had happened.